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Each week Traveller publishes a selection of rants, raves and travel tips from our readers. See below on how you can contribute.
Unfriendly skies
While it is good to see Emirates receiving praise for its cancellation policy, the policy is not friendly to those who wish to preserve their trip using safe routes. The cancellation catch is that you have to cancel the entire booking, including the return journey, which could be many weeks or months away. Emirates’ requirement is to first book any flights you wish to retain and then cancel your original booking to get your refund. Guess what? The new bookings are much more expensive than the flights you are being involuntarily forced to surrender, therefore requiring a handover of more funds to Emirates. It is doubtful that we would further patronise Emirates on that principle.
Peter Granger, Mornington, Vic
Had by Etihad
Our daughter and her family, who booked with Etihad for their holiday from Zurich to Sydney have not been as fortunate as your reader was with Emirates (Traveller Letters, March 28). Thirty minutes before leaving home to catch their Etihad flight from Zurich airport, my daughter received a text message from Etihad to say her family’s flights had been cancelled. With two young children under five, my daughter made many attempts to contact Etihad with no success. They eventually managed to arrange different flights with different carriers to get to Sydney the day after their original flight was to arrive. All attempts to contact Etihad from Australia to confirm their return flights and seek a refund were also unsuccessful.
Two weeks into their four-week holiday, my daughter received another text message from Etihad to advise them that the day and time of their return flight to Zurich had changed with new flight details included. A few days later, when my daughter checked the status of their flights, she discovered that all confirmed flight bookings for the family with Etihad had disappeared from the airline’s website. Fortunately, and at great expense, she was able to book return tickets with another airline for their return.
Nazli Munir, Balmain, NSW
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Letter of the week: Ease of the Peloponnese
After a conference in Delphi, Greece, my wife, myself, and our baby daughter decided to catch a local bus not knowing where it would go. We didn’t speak Greek, didn’t know where we were, or where we would end up. We were simply up for an adventure. Catching random buses eventually took us to the coast where we crossed by ferry to the Peloponnese. Here we entered a place that was beautifully described in your story by Lee Tulloch. In a slow and magical state we meandered back towards Athens, arriving with priceless memories from an impromptu decision.
Alistair Riddell, Abbotsford, Vic
Scale of injustice
We flew to Hobart for a weekend with Jetstar. We had golf clubs and on the way there we were not charged for oversized luggage. However, on the way back we were. When I questioned this, the response was, “I don’t know what they do in Melbourne, but we’re charging you here”. I emailed Jetstar with my complaint, which they acknowledged, and said they would get back to me in a week for compensation. It’s been a month and we’ve heard nothing.
Anna Minter, Richmond, Vic
Two sides
Ross Duncan, not all travel agents are created equal (Traveller Letters, March 28). He had a woeful experience with Amex Travel but, on the flipside, we had a gem of a travel agent in Africa who called the Radisson Blu in Lusaka directly from South Africa to sort out our pre-paid accommodation when the hotel kept insisting that we hadn’t paid for our stay and wouldn’t allow us to leave.
Susan Chee, Brighton, Vic
Inns defence
The accommodation website Booking.com was recently unfairly targeted in a report by ABC TV. Case one involved an injured traveller refused a refund on bookings she could no longer make. Perhaps, as many of us do, they should have chosen the more expensive refundable option. Travel insurance also could have been obtained before travelling. Case two concerned an owner renting out her house wanting compensation for repairs. Booking.com did not verify the renter. Providers all over the world verify their renters with electronic ID scanners on arrival. Or perhaps landlord insurance could be helpful. Take responsibility.
Elizabeth Dorrell, Wollongong, NSW
Return serve
Your writer Brian Johnston’s wise reminder that airports can be dissociated from the cities where they claim to be, reminded me of the trauma associated with Switzerland’s Geneva Airport. This place, which Johnston recommends for use by visitors to Eastern France, sits on the French and Swiss borders. This is fine if you’re leaving the airport. But, if you’ve hired a French car and intend to return it at Geneva, the complex route to enter what looks like a high-walled prison yard is a challenge to both man and GPS. Leave plenty of time.
Jeremy Eccles, Clifton Gardens, NSW
Baguette me not
At times, with justification, the attitude of the French to tourists can be quite frosty (Traveller Letters, March 28), and certainly, I’ve had a couple of run-ins with customs when entering, but that premise was turned on its head with one incident I had in Paris. A friend and I were hitchhiking from Athens to Kent in England back in the 1970s, and we had made it as far as the French capital with our funds running really low. After spotting a large queue hitching north we were discussing if we should spend the last of our money on food or on the Paris Metro to get us out of Paris to a better hitching spot. Just then a waiter from the bistro across the road appeared and gave us a bag full of day-old bread, super soft brie, ham and an old tomato. We took the Metro. I have been forever grateful.
Mario Mazzoni, Wollongong, NSW
This is your majesty speaking…
Kent Prior’s letter, “Putting the ouch in voucher” (Traveller Letters, March 28) reflects on the honesty of KLM Royal Airlines in changing apparent departure times to avoid giving meal vouchers to inconvenienced travellers. Who knew that the King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, is a pilot on KLM? Maybe Mr Prior could take it up with him.
Jennifer Saunders, Canberra, ACT
EDITOR’S NOTE King Willem-Alexander recently flew his final KLM Boeing 737 service after 30 years as a pilot.
Tip of the week: Burning bright
iStock
After an unsuccessful attempt to see tigers in 2025 we returned to Satpura Tiger Reserve, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where we saw seven tigers, including a family of five, over three days. We had the same excellent guide at Bori Safari Lodge in the Satpura National Park. Be warned, however, that the Indian government has banned mobile phones from wildlife reserves in India so take a conventional camera.
Russell Huntington, South Yarra, Vic
EDITOR’S NOTE Apparently the ban was introduced to prevent potentially dangerous actions such as taking selfies, to reduce noise and to stop people getting too close to wildlife, thus maintaining “the natural cadence” of the forest and the tigers’ habitat.
I was bugged
A gentle reminder for travellers. On a recent domestic tour, overnight bites on my neck recalled a nightmare a few years ago, when I was savagely breakfasted on by bed bugs in a Canberra hotel. They then hitchhiked home with me. Eradication by pesticide spraying took three months. I used laundromat wash-and-dry facilities to treat clothes, linen, etc, then sealed it all in black plastic bags for months. (Heat treatment is another option.) I now inspect hotel beds (all grades) whilst travelling. The cost, discomfort, stress and horror of being bugged – immeasurable.
Rob Darl, Turramurra, NSW
London frown
Tim Richards’ review of London’s St Pancras Station praises the departure arrangements, but it is a different story for arriving travellers. When I arrived, there was a queue at the taxi rank hundreds of metres long and not a single taxi in sight. Every now and again, an odd taxi would appear, but there was no organisation, no information and no alternative for elderly travellers who can’t run out into the street to hail a passing cab at random. By contrast, the arrangements at Paris stations I’ve used are efficient, and taxis seem to be plentiful. Why should there be such a difference?|
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy, NSW
Fine times
A message to your reader, Alison Stewart (Traveller Letters, March 28): your Italian traffic tickets may still be on their way. Both of mine arrived after seven months, by registered mail no less. One was for entering a public square on a Sunday morning, which already had many cars parked in it. Before leaving, a local told me what I had done wrong and that I would have been picked up by the overhead camera. Sadly, he was correct. I showed a photo of the confusing signage at the entrance to the square to an Italian friend, who said he didn’t understand it. I felt vindicated.
Kevin Hunt, Kenthurst, NSW
Scrub-a-dub-dub
Being steamed, scrubbed, soaped and oiled without a word of English spoken, with only a polite gesture or two then a tap on my shoulder to roll over, was my best experience during our Mediterranean trip last year. Yes I was, to quote your story headline “thrifty and nifty”, plucking up the courage to visit a traditional hammam in Istanbul where the locals outnumber the few adventurous tourists. But by doing a bit of research I didn’t just save money, I was exposed to an authentic experience that I’ll always remember. And my skin felt divine.
Roxanne Le Blanc, Croydon, Vic
Pause for thought
The Traveller Quiz (Friday, March 27) had a question about Mount Everest, with an accompanying photo of two mountain peaks, the higher one gleaming in the sun. However, that is Nuptse; Mount Everest is the apparently lower one on the left. I recently flew past Mount Everest on what must be one of the world’s most scenic scheduled flights, from Paro, Bhutan to Kathmandu, Nepal. It was a gloriously sunny day, except for one cloud that looked like a thought bubble coming out of Mount Everest. I wondered what the mountain might be thinking.
Rob Morgan, Bulleen, Vic
Happy places
Editor’s note: In our series, My Happy Place, where Traveller’s writers reflect on the holiday destinations in Australia and around the world that they cherish the most. We also invite you to submit your happy places. Here’s a selection of your contributions.
In the ’70s we lived in the Netherlands, a young couple with two kids. Our summer holidays were usually spent happily camping at the Lago Maggiore near Ascona, Switzerland. In the late ’90s, when we retired and wanted to move to Australia, we looked around for a place to settle during one of our visits. One of these places was Nelson Bay, NSW. Driving around there, we felt the same vibe as when driving along Lago Maggiore: Government Road, Nelson Bay, is very much like the road from Ascona to Cannobio. We found a place nearby and have now been there for 26 years.
Henk Tobbe, One Mile, NSW
I love Istanbul. The city’s pulse, the colours, the food, the spice market, the stunning mosques, the people and the must-do visit to a Turkish bath where I abandon modesty and leave feeling tingly clean.
Ngaire Watson, Murwillumbah, NSW
Istanbul is my happy place. I’d wanted to see it for years – the idea of a city that was a meeting place for Christian and Muslim empires fascinated me. The interplay of both in the Hagia Sophia, the sudden appearance of ancient Roman and medieval mixing with modern and current keeps me looking for the next juxtaposition. The ferries that constantly cross the waterways, the familiar sounds of trams and the mix of nationalities all keep me looking and enjoying. And yet Istanbul also offers the quiet of a slow brewed Turkish coffee, with no push by the shopkeeper to move on; the freshness of well-made food and the magnificence of Turkish desserts. A visit to a hammam to experience a new level of cleanliness. All in all, just a spectacular place to visit – can’t wait to go back.
David Landis-Morse, Eaglemont, Vic
Forests are my happy place. I feel most alive and happy in forests, especially rainforests – feeling the soft ground underfoot, seeing the lush green trees, ferns and mosses around me, hearing birdsong through the canopy, and smelling the moist, deep scent of soil and growth. In a world that rarely slows down, forests enable a kind of restful clarity that is hard to find anywhere else. They’re where I feel most at ease – my happy place.
Amy Hiller, Kew, Vic
The Letter of the Week writer wins three Hardie Grant travel books. See hardiegrant.com
The Tip of the Week writer wins a set of three Lonely Planet travel books. See shop.lonelyplanet.com
